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9780195089172

Falling in Love with Wisdom American Philosophers Talk About Their Calling

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  • ISBN13:

    9780195089172

  • ISBN10:

    0195089170

  • Format: Paperback
  • Copyright: 1994-03-17
  • Publisher: Oxford University Press

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Summary

David Lynn Hall's love of philosophy began with a fifty-cent paperback. Then an adolescent facing an 18-hour bus trip across the great Southwest, desperate for anything to read, Hall bought Alfred North Whitehead's Adventures of Ideas at a rest stop in Pecos, Texas. He didn't have a clue who Whitehead was, but the book had a colorful, exotic cover, and nothing else on the revolving wire bookrack appealed to him. "I paid fifty cents, boarded the Trailways bus, nestled into my narrow seat and into the vastness of the desert spaces--and soon into the yet vaster spaces of humanity's great thoughts.... As I recall that first encounter with philosophic thinking, I seem to capture the exact emotion--a mixture of intrigue and perplexity, a congealed sense of awe--the apotheosis of which is the feeling philosophy now represents for me." That Mentor paperback still sits on his shelf, a treasured relic held together by rubberbands. Hall is just one of over sixty philosophers whose revealing memoirs appear in Falling in Love with Wisdom, a fascinating look at how some people became philosophers. Contributed by thinkers young and old, male and female, famous and obscure, these pieces reveal in very human terms both the rewards and hazards of a life dedicated to the pursuit of wisdom. Many recall a single memorable moment, an epiphany that changed forever the way they thought about themselves and the world around them. Huston Smith reveals how powerful these moments can be: "My excitement had been mounting all evening and around midnight it exploded, shattering mental stockades. It was as if a fourth dimension of space had opened, and ideas--now palpable--were unrolling like carpets before me." Others, such as Diane Michelfelder, find their gravitation to philosophy more subtle: "I sometimes think that one becomes a philosopher the same way one becomes many other things: a lover, a neighbor, a friend, an adult. You wake up one morning to discover that is what you have become." Still others speak of valued mentors (Angela Davis recounts her relationship with Herbert Marcuse), brushes with death, and the personal pain of social prejudice and ostracism. And throughout the book, there is much humor (Wallace Matson recounts his mother's horrified reaction to his precocious religious scepticism: "If you don't believe in God," she cried, "you can never be elected to public office!") and many surprises (Arthur C. Danto, for instance, admits he entered Columbia's graduate program in philosophy simply to keep getting the GI Bill while he pursued his true ambition, painting: "I had no great interest in philosophy, and certainly no intention of becoming a philosopher"). These sixty-four memoirs--almost all of which were written for this volume--reveal that the road to wisdom has many on-ramps. Yet all would ultimately agree with Henry Kyburg. "I imagine being asked," Kyburg writes, "'How did a healthy, ambitious, accomplished man like you, with all the advantages you have had, end up in such a useless dead end profession?' To which I would smugly reply, 'Just lucky, I guess.'"

Author Biography


David D. Karnos is Professor of Philosophy at Eastern Montana College. Robert G. Shoemaker is Professor of Philosophy, Emeritus, at Hendrix College.

Table of Contents

Introduction 3(6)
I OF FORTUNE AND FRIENDS
In the Beginning...
9(4)
Arthur K. Bierman
How I Became Almost a Philosopher
13(3)
Lewis White Beck
Not a Philosopher
16(2)
Paul Feyerabend
Just Lucky, I Guess!
18(3)
Henry E. Kyburg, Jr.
``V-Yooze,''
21(3)
David Lynn Hall
Seeking Sophia's Friendship
24(4)
Natalie Dandekar
Youthful Reminiscence
28(5)
Joel Feinberg
Starting with Nothing
33(2)
William F. Vallicella
Of Butterflies and Frogs
35(2)
Susan L. Anderson
In Defense of Philosophical Intemperance
37(3)
Roger T. Ames
Smiling
40(7)
John Murungi
II OF MENTORS AND FAMILY
Radical Journeys, from An Autobiography
47(4)
Angela Davis
A Little Dab Would Have Done It
51(3)
Wallace I. Matson
The Value of Bad Grades
54(3)
Walter Sinnott-Armstrong
Philosophers Make Philosophers
57(2)
James Waddell
Philosophy on a Clear Day
59(3)
Diane P. Michelfelder
Big Questions and an Answer
62(4)
Richard Schacht
Approaching from Above
66(6)
Samuel Gorovitz
Living and Ideas
72(4)
Lawrence K. Schmidt
The Alexander Tradition in Philosophy (1873-1992)
76(9)
Hubert G. Alexander
Thomas M. Alexander
The Rose Tradition
85(9)
Mary Carman Rose
John Marcus Rose
Primal Scenes
94(4)
Larry R. Churchill
Philosophy, Football, and the Westminster Confession
98(7)
John Churchill
III FROM CATECHISMS TO MISSIONS
Autocollage
105(3)
Jere P. Surber
Philosophical Sacraments
108(2)
Gary Backhaus
Philosophy, a Bus Ride, and Dumb Luck
110(3)
Alfred Mele
Why Be Moral?
113(4)
Bart Gruzalski
From Street Corner to Classroom
117(3)
Richard L. Purtill
Huston Smith's Story, from Primordial Truth and Postmodern Theology
120(5)
Huston Smith
Magic Mountains and Matrimony
125(4)
Walter B. Gulick
The Education of a Philosopher, of Sorts
129(3)
Henry Rosemont Jr.
In Search of Self and Cultural Coherence
132(3)
E.M. Adams
On Becoming a Philosopher
135(6)
Robert Baird
IV FROM STRANGE CAUSES TO STRONG CAUSES
First Philosophy
141(3)
Charles Harvey
Synergism of Text and Vision
144(8)
Graham Parkes
Faute De Mieux
152(2)
Leon Rosenstein
Always the Philosopher
154(3)
Robert Solomon
Finding Philosophy
157(4)
Albert Borgmann
Per Iram ad Philosophiam
161(4)
Thomas S. Vernon
Finding My Voice: Reminiscence of an Outlaw
165(4)
Claudia Card
Up From Poverty
169(5)
Jim Shelton
I Couldn't Help It
174(6)
Patricia Smith
The Fragility of Freedom
180(4)
David Strong
A Philosopher Gone Wild
184(7)
Holmes Rolston III
V FROM LOGIC TO ART
Where the Argument Led
191(4)
Peter Caws
Life and Logic, from The Time of My Life: An Autobiography
195(4)
Willard van Orman Quine
A Philosopher Remembers
199(3)
Bernard Gert
The Practice of Philosophy
202(3)
James Gouinlock
Cybersage Does Tai Chi
205(5)
Michael Heim
Surrealism, Schubert, and Socrates
210(4)
Eva H. Cadwallader
Moving Between Places
214(4)
Edward S. Casey
What Made Me Philosophical
218(5)
Virgil C. Aldrich
The Good, the True, and the Beautiful
223(3)
Kathleen Marie Higgins
Backing into Philosophy
226(7)
Arthur C. Danto
VI OF PLACES AND PASSAGES
Philosophy--A Lifeline
233(3)
Linda A. Bell
Philosophy, Chocolate Ice Cream, and the Weight of the World
236(3)
Kenneth Seeskin
Philosophy as Flash and Character Flaw
239(4)
Margaret P. Battin
Being unto Death
243(3)
James W. Garrison
Becoming a Philosopher in Mississippi
246(4)
Robert G. Shoemaker
Interstices
250(3)
David D. Karnos
Transcendental Resonance
253(3)
Maurice Natanson
Being Elsewhere
256
Alphonso Lingis

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